crooked tongues magazine News Features

You can't go wrong with an adidas ZX 500. Well, not too wrong. The byproduct of the aZX focus on these technical marvels has been a steady flow of good hype-free makeups of our favourite adidas ZX colourways. This 1984 design was state-of-the-art on its debut and remains one of the greatest trainer designs ever. We throw superlatives like that around on the regular, but (cue a Just Blaze beat) we really mean it. Great shape, great use of materials, and the ill nipple rubber stud outsole, complimented by a ghilly lacing system makes this a classic.

Last season was riddled with some of the nicest new shades of shoe in a long, long time - no concepts, just adidas as we love it - clinical, efficient and smartly designed, and the coming months, way into winter don't disappoint either (let's just say it's a good time to be fan of the old-style Torsion technology...but more on that later). This duo of ZX 500s is decent. The meshes, synthetic suede and leather on the black, green and reds is a good 'un, but that red, grey and navy is the shoe at its best - it would be nice with the original dual density midsole layout restored, but it's got enough elements of the original applications in the mix to keep us happy. They're not too dissimilar from some of the early 2007 ZX retros, but we're still liking these versions of the high mileage icon. No-nonsense goodness, set to arrive in the Crooked Tongues store around July - in the meantime, check out the store's adidas ZX 500 selection...